1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a beverage can filling plant for filling, closing, and packing beverage cans and a method of operation thereof. The present application further relates to a method for the manufacture of container packages and for the packing of containers in container carriers such as outer boxes, for example, and a device for the performance of the method.
2. Background Information
This application thereby relates, to cite just one exemplary embodiment, to container packaging formats that have a box-shaped receptacle made of a cut blank of foldable flat material with corresponding side walls, whereby the receptacle container can be open on top. These container packages also have internal partitions that are made of a wide cut blank of foldable flat material which, when folded out, form corresponding cell dividers or honeycombs to protect the individual containers against impact and during transport of the containers to be packaged. This protection during transport of the containers to be packaged can also comprise a plurality of cut blanks that are assembled to form cell dividers or honeycombs.
German Patent No. 23 56 391 A1 describes a method for the opening of folded cell dividers and for the insertion of the opened cell dividers into container packaging, whereby the folded cell dividers are transported upright into a first position, from which they are moved forward by means of a transport device that applies a suction force, are then opened and transported into a second position above the containers. They are then fixed in this second position and finally pushed into the opened container package.
During the transfer of the cell dividers from the first position into the second position, the cell dividers are opened by a 90° pivoting of a transport device that is operated by a suction force. The opened cell divider is then inserted partway into a container package and is finally pushed by a vertically movable push-down ram or stamp to the bottom of the container package. Apart from the multiple steps that are required for the positioning and insertion of a cell divider, a further significant disadvantage is that these work steps, which must be performed in sequence, can be performed only in discontinuous operation of the machine.
For this purpose, German Patent No. 30 33 773 A1 describes, among other things, a method for the manufacture of container carriers and for the packing of containers in these container carriers. In this method of the prior art, separately manufactured flat cut blanks for a container carrier and for a partition insertion are fed to a packing machine. The partition insert, which can be prefabricated or fabricated in the packaging plant, is folded to form cell divider fields and is then brought together with a group of containers. The folded partition insert is then inserted from overhead onto a pre-arranged group of containers. In practice, the method is carried out so that groups of containers are pushed onto the bottom of container carrier cut blanks lying flat, and then the box cell dividers with folded-out transverse webs are placed from above between the rows of the groups of containers. Then the side walls of the container carrier cut blank are folded against the long sides of the containers. The end-side connecting tabs of the center walls and the end walls of the container carrier cut blanks are then folded against the transverse sides of the containers and are glued together. The final step is carried out at a right angle to the direction of transport.
The prior art also includes devices that are capable of extracting the partitions, cell dividers or honeycombs, all folded flat, one after the other by means of the gripper device of a loading or charging unit which transports the honeycombs in the horizontal direction, opens them and then transfers them to a vertical device, by means of which the opened honeycomb can be inserted into a carton that is designed to hold bottles or similar objects. Devices of this type have the disadvantage that the honeycombs, which are generally made of cardboard, can be damaged during the transfer from one device to another. The entire cycle also requires a very long time between the pickup of the honeycombs and their insertion into the carton, because a certain length of time is necessary for the horizontal movement between the devices. Finally, extreme care is necessary to ensure accurate positioning between the devices for the horizontal and vertical movement, because otherwise the machine has to be turned off.
Finally, the prior art indicates that the erection, transfer and insertion process can be performed in continuous operation. For this purpose, a device is used for the extraction of a partition or of a cell divider that is folded flat, and for the opening and insertion of the cell divider into a container package or a carton, which device has an individual gripper apparatus by means of which an L-shaped movement can be carried out with the simultaneous opening of each cell divider and a lowering into the carton that takes place under the force of gravity. The final lowered position of the box cell dividers positioned between the bottles, cans or similar objects is then reached by means of vibration devices or vibrating conveyors. One disadvantage of this method is the uncontrolled transfer of a cell divider simply by letting it fall. At high production rates in particular, it repeatedly occurs that the cell dividers tip over onto the bottle formations, with corresponding disruptions of machine operation. Such interruptions occur frequently in practice when the cell dividers have to be fitted over groups of containers, the containers of which do not have a well-defined neck area which generally promotes the introduction of the cell dividers. Well-defined neck areas are found on wine bottles, for example, as a result of which the partitions can be inserted particularly easily and smoothly in cases of wine bottles. By contrast, the introduction of cell dividers in groups of beverage cans such as beer cans, for example, is particularly difficult and susceptible to disruptions, because cans have only a narrow edge (the flanged edge) in the vicinity of their covers, which makes a direct transition into the vertical outside wall, and the cans within a container group are arranged right one up against another, i.e. outside wall in contact with outside wall, which makes the introduction of cell dividers even more difficult.